To re gout

[Guest guest]

Hello ,

I hope you are feeling better than you were earlier. I am interested

in what you say about getting gout after taking Viokase. I have

recently developed bad pain in my foot joints, especially the left

foot, where the toes join the main part of the foot. My GP does not

think it is gout. He has diagnosed metatarsalgia which basically

means....painful foot bones! However, to make sure, he added a test

for uric acid levels to the blood tests he ordered last week. He was

testing also for Vit B12 deficiency as I have some peripheral

neuropathy. I will be phoning him tomorrow for the results of the

bllod tests. He then intends sending me for physio and advice on

footwear etc. ( So now, as well as drinking no alcohol and no rich

food I will have to nibble my lettuce leaves and sip my tonic water

wearing big boots instead of the pretty shoes I have always

loved!!!! Oh for the days of cheese, wine and high heels!)

Just before I went to the GP, I was told by the PAI UK rep that high

levels of uric acid was one possible side effect of these enzyme

preparations. In fact, it's on the fact sheet about Creon on a

pharmaceutical website which someone gave me. That made me think of

the possibility that my foot pain was gout. Did your doc make a

definite diagnosis of gout and did s/he link it to the enzymes? I

did e-mail my pancreatologist about this matter. He told me that it

was a theoretically possible side-effect for levels of uric acid to

be high but that he had never known a case of gout in the many

hundreds of patients for whom he had prescribed Creon. As I say, my

doc (GP) doesn't think my problem is gout anyway but I'm waiting for

those blood test results! My problem certainly looked to me very

like the gout of a colleague at school whose doc has diagnosed gout.

Obviously I am not a doctor and I do generally trust my GP's

judgement. He is being very thorough in any case.

I don't want to give up Creon because it is so effective for me

personally in controlling the effects of malabsorption such as

diarrhoea, steatorrhoea, gas etc and has also reduced my pain levels

and the length and frequency of my pain attacks. I gather you didn't

find the veggie enzymes as effective as Viokase?

I hope you don't mind my asking you all these questions. I think

it's the first time I've seen anyone else raise this gout question.

With very good wishes,

Fliss (UK)